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प्रजापति Prajāpati

Prijipati · δ Aurigae · Auriga

individual staridentification disputedattestations 2 δ AurHIP 28358mag 3.72

Attestations

Sūrya Siddhānta
पूर्वस्याम् ब्रह्महृदयाद् अम्शकैः पञ्चभिः स्थितः / प्रजापतिर् वृषान्ते +असौ सौम्ये +अष्टत्रिम्शदम्शकैः //
20. Situated five degrees eastward from Brahmahrdaya is Prajapati: it is at the end of Taurus, and thirty-eight degrees north. — E. Burgess (1860)

Burgess: 'The star referred to can hardly be any other than that in the head of the Wagoner, or δ Aurigae (4)', wondering 'why so faint and inconspicuous a star' was singled out. He also doubts the authenticity of vv. 20-21 and notes the two definitions of its longitude (v. 11 + v. 20 vs 'end of Taurus') do not quite agree.

Sūrya Siddhānta 8.20 · text · translation
Vaṭeśvara & Sāmanta · composed 1869 CE (Śaka 1791); edited by Joges Chandra Ray, Calcutta 1899
हुतभुग्ब्रह्महृदययोः पञ्चाशां५२शा ध्रुवश्च सौरोक्ताः । प्रथमस्याष्टौ८ त्रिंश३० द्वितीयभस्योत्तरं ष्वंशाः ॥ २९ ॥ ब्रह्महृदयपूर्व्वस्यां पञ्चभिरंशैः प्रजापतिर्वसति । तस्योत्तरविक्षेपः कुञ्जररामां३८शकोऽप्युदितः ॥ ३० ॥ आधुनिकैरभियुक्तैर्निश्चित्योक्तं पृथक् च संस्थानम् । हुतभुग्ब्रह्महृदययोः प्रजापतेस्तत्पुनर्वच्मि ॥ ३१ ॥ हुतभुग्ध्रुवः सपादाष्टार्थीं५८।१५शाः साद्धिपञ्च५।१५ सौम्यशरः । षड्विकलास्तन्मानं ध्रुवः पुनर्ब्रह्महृदयस्य ॥ ३२ ॥ अङ्कार्धाः५६ सौम्यशरस्त्रिभुज२३लवा नृपा१६स्तनूविकलाः । सोमभ(५)याम्यगतो यो लुब्धक एतत्प्रजापतिभम् ॥ ३३ ॥

Devanagari transcribed by the compiler from the page FACSIMILE (archive.org scan leaf n220 = printed p. 118) because the archive.org OCR of this volume is unusable for Devanagari; the page image itself was fetched in this session at https://archive.org/download/in.ernet.dli.2015.292705/page/n220.jpg . Every numeral was re-read at full scan resolution. Cross-checked against a second, independent scan of the same Ray edition at https://archive.org/download/siddhantadarpanachandrashekarsimha1897_252_Z/ , which agrees character for character on the figures. Round brackets and the figures in them are the PRINTED EDITION'S own: (n) is the serial number of the asterism/star, the figure after it the edition's decoding of the preceding bhūtasaṅkhyā word-numeral, so no numeral has been silently converted here. A handful of the compound word-forms in this worn 1899 type are uncertain and are marked in this database as read, not emended; the FIGURES, which carry the astronomy, were verified at high magnification in both scans.

See the translation given under Brahmahṛdaya for the same block of verses (29–33), and under Mṛgavyādha for verse 27. — Literal rendering by the compiler

★★ THE MOST RADICAL OF SĀMANTA'S RE-IDENTIFICATIONS. The Sūrya Siddhānta (8.20) puts Prajāpati five degrees east of Brahmahṛdaya, 38° NORTH — the position that made Burgess settle, reluctantly, on the faint δ Aurigae. Sāmanta reports that tradition at XII.30 and then overturns it: after announcing at XII.31 that modern observers have determined a different position for Hutabhuj, Brahmahṛdaya AND Prajāpati, he ends XII.33 with 'that Lubdhaka which lies south of Soma's asterism (Mṛgaśiras) — this is the asterism of Prajāpati'. That star was specified at XII.27 as dhruva 56°, śara 32° SOUTH, disc 10 vikalās, which in his frame is RIGEL (β Orionis: 55°55' / 31°17' S) to within 5' and 43'. Sāmanta therefore moves Prajāpati from 38° north of the ecliptic to 32° south of it — from Auriga to the foot of Orion — and does so with coordinates that land squarely on a first-magnitude star, whereas the traditional position lands on a fourth-magnitude one. Recorded here as disputed: it is one text against the rest of the tradition, but the one text is the only observationally grounded member of it.

Siddhānta Darpaṇa of Candraśekhara Sāmanta, Grahagaṇita, Tripraśnādhikāra, 12th prakāśa (Bhagrahayogavarṇana) 27, 30–33 · text · translation

See also

Prajāpati (in the tail)